Networks are commonly used to interconnect individual devices to one another on a network. For example, workstations, peripheral devices (e.g., printers, storage devices, etc.), and/or servers may be interconnected to one another over a network. Local area networks (LANs) are often used to interconnect these network devices within an office or even a household. Wide area networks (WANs) are often used to interconnect these network devices between remote locations (e.g., corporate departments via an intranet or even the Internet). Many networks include both LANs and WANs linked to one another for various purposes. Servers provided on these networks allow data and/or applications to be centrally stored and processed. For example, a server may be provided on the network for managing the e-commerce of a business, another server may be used to back-up data from individual workstations on the network, another server may be used for storing and providing central access to various software applications and databases, etc. However, the interconnectivity of a network by itself does not necessarily make optimum use of the available storage capacity thereof.
The use of storage capacity varies among network devices. Some network devices require significant storage capacity (e.g., for backup data, e-commerce management, etc.). Other network devices require, by comparison, very little storage capacity (e.g., an email workstation, storing individual user files, etc.). Likewise, storage capacity itself varies among network devices. Newer network devices may have more storage capacity than older network devices, and network devices dedicated to a WAN may have more storage capacity than network devices dedicated to a LAN. Therefore, some network devices may have sufficient storage capacity, while other network devices may have insufficient storage capacity.
As an illustration, consider a network linking three workstations to one another, or three servers to one another. Assume that each workstation or server has an attached storage device having a total capacity of one-hundred gigabytes. The first workstation or server may be used for e-commerce management, the second workstation or server may be used for backing-up the internal LAN, and the third workstation or server may be a multipurpose workstation or server. The first workstation or server may use nearly all of the attached storage capacity (e.g., 90%) for e-commerce management. While, the second workstation or server may not use as much attached storage capacity, it may still use a significant portion of its attached storage capacity (e.g., 80%). On the other hand, the third workstation or server may use hardly any of its attached storage capacity (e.g., 20%). Thus, the first workstation or server may soon, if not already, require additional storage capacity. Therefore, an additional storage device must be purchased and installed for use by the first workstation or server. However, there is significant storage capacity that is unused by the other two workstations or servers (i.e., one-hundred gigabytes, or the equivalent of an entire storage device). Therefore, the storage capacity is not efficiently distributed on the network.
One solution is to grant one or more network devices access to the storage device of one or more of the other network devices. However, the network device accessing the other storage devices must first determine whether storage capacity is available on the other storage devices. Where storage capacity is not available from a particular network device, the network device must continue to search the storage devices attached to the other network devices until it finds another storage device with sufficient storage capacity. Once another storage device has been identified, the network device accessing the other storage device must then maintain a log identifying particular files that are stored at each of the various other storage devices so that the files can later be retrieved. This can become particularly burdensome when files are stored at multiple other storage devices. Furthermore, a local user may not recognize a remotely-stored file and delete it, or otherwise inadvertently overwrite a remotely-stored file.